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Federal investigators have sought subpoenas for employees at the federal jail in New York City where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

Justice Department officials have said for over a week that some of the employees who were on duty when the financier and convicted sex trafficker died in his cell have retained lawyers and declined investigators' requests for interviews, NBC News reported.

Investigators were looking into whether two guards tasked with watching Epstein may have been sleeping when he died, two officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News last week. Investigators had not yet reached any conclusions as of last week, the law enforcement sources said.

Chief of Federal Prisons Removed After Epstein’s Death

Attorney General William Barr removed the acting director of the Bureau of Prisons in the latest fallout over the death of Jeffrey Epstein in federal custody. Barr named a former director, Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, to replace Hugh Hurwitz.